Michelle Obama shares details of her sleepover at Buckingham Palace

Michelle Obama has done and seen a lot of things the rest of us could only dream of - and having a sleepover at Buckingham Palace is just one of them.
Speaking at a New York event, the former US First Lady has reflected on her experience of being hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at the royal residence in London in 2011.
The 54-year-old was on a state visit with husband and then-president Barack Obama at the time, and says staying with the Royal Family wasn’t as intimidating as one might expect.

When the Obamas met the Royals. (AAP)
“I think by the time we had the sleepover we had enough interacting with them,” she recalls.
“The surprising thing is folks wanted to be treated normally.

There's definitely some gossip happening here. (AAP)
Though the visitors were undoubtedly served the creme de la creme of palace cuisine, Obama insists the food at the White House takes the cake..
“I don’t want to insult anybody, but American food is just better,” she adds.
However, she is willing to admit Her Majesty’s home decor and china was superior.

“Everything is gold. We had seen the gold room - there's a room where they keep all the gold,” she says.
“It was [daughter] Sasha's birthday and the Queen opened the house and she let us see that room.”
Obama was particularly impressed by how meals were served during the state banquet.

As you can see, there's a lot of gold in Buckingham Palace. (AAP)
“The plate that I thought was the charger, that was the plate. They put food on the gold charger because that was their plate,” she says.
“I said, ‘You win. You win on the plates. You got us beat.’ Their rose garden? Much bigger.”
While the Royal Family clearly knows how to put on a show for their guests, reports suggest they live a little more humbly behind the scenes - especially the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth is said to live a frugal lifestyle. (Getty)
Last year, a former Buckingham Palace chef revealed the monarch ate the same breakfast every day - "Some Kellogg's cereal from a plastic container, which she'd serve herself" - and regularly ate out of Tupperware.
The 91-year-old is also said to have sheets and curtains mended when they fray, rather than buying new ones, and favours simple electric space heaters to keep her residences warm.